Unacademy Raises $50 Mn in Series D led by Steadview, Sequoia India and others

Bangalore-based educational technology company Unacademy that offers online education has raised $50 million Series D round of funding led by Steadview Capital, Sequoia India, Nexus Venture Partners and Blume Ventures. The founders of Unacademy, Gaurav Munjal and Roman Saini, also contributed to the round. The new round means the startup has raised close to $90 million to date.

Started as a channel on YouTube in 2010, Unacademy will use the latest funding capital in expanding the number of educators it has on the platform as well exam courses. It will also improve its product and expand the team.

To date, Unacademy has raised a total of about $90 Mn in six rounds of funding including the latest one. It last raised funds in July last year, when it had raised $21 million from Nexus Ventures, SAIF Partners, Sequoia Capital India among others. Prior to that, in eptember 2017, the startup raised $11.5 million Series B round of funding led by Sequoia India, SAIF Partners, Nexus Venture Partners and Blume Ventures

Unacademy was founded by Gaurav Munjal, Roman Saini, Hemesh Singh and Sachin Gupta. Gaurav and Hemesh were previously running Flatchat which was acquired by CommonFloor in 2014. Roman, 26, is a doctor from AIIMS and one of the youngest people to clear the prestigious Indian Civil Services Examination. To follow his passion, he quit his administrative services post as Asst. Collector of Jabalpur to start Unacademy.

Last October, Unacademy acquired WifiStudy, a Jaipur-based YouTube channel, for reportedly $10 million (~ Rs. 73.12 Crores) in order to tap the test preparation market and increase its presence in tier-2 and -3 cities among students who prepare for public recruitment exams including railways and banking.

Education sector in India, which has largest population in the world in the age bracket of 5 to 24 years is estimated to grow to $35 billion in next six years.

Unacademy, which also operates in Indonesia, competes with BYJU’s, Toppr, Vedantu and Embibe. While BYJU’s is dominating the global market. Vedantu, which raised $11 million in April, has recently launched a LIVE interactive learning platform called ‘WAVE’ (a revolutionary new LIVE learning platform), claiming it to be India’s first.